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Paracetamol may reduce cancer risk

Using paracetamol regularly could reduce the risk of ovarian cancer by almost a third, according to scientists. A research team from Athens University studied 746,000 women over a six-year period, and found that the risk of cancer fell by 30% when the women took paracetamol regularly. However, the scientists stressed that more research was needed, and women should not take the medicine as a way to guard against the disease due to the risks of long-term paracetamol use - including liver and chronic kidney failure. “Ovarian cancer remains the most fatal gynecological malignancy” says Dr Bonovas of Athen University. “Its high mortality rate – mainly due to a combination of ineffective screening and the limited success of therapies for advanced disease - makes ovarian cancer a major health concern. “Strategies that focus on prevention may therefore provide the most rational approach for reducing deaths from this form of cancer. “Because paracetamol is so widely used, a link with a decreased risk of ovarian cancer could have important public health implications.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .